Automated machines for making electrical cable assemblies are generally arranged to fabricate a given quantity of identical cable assemblies. During the fabrication, the conductors are cut to length and presented to a connector termination station for termination to a desired connector. Such a machine is depicted in FIG. 1 where there is shown an automated cable making machine 10 having a connector feeding apparatus 12, a wire terminating station 14, a quality check station 15, a connector marking station 16, a cable management and packaging station 18, a wire feed and measurement station 20, and a computerized control station 22 for controlling the operation of the machine 10. The machine 10 is designed to manufacture a desired quantity of kits of cable assemblies automatically and to physically arrange each kit in a separate package. The present invention relates to apparatus in the wire terminating station 14 which will be described in detail during the following discussion of the machine 10.
The general operation of the machine involves establishing an initial data base which is maintained by a computer 24, defining the various parameters of the cable assemblies to be made, the type and location of the various types of connectors to be used during fabrication, and other parameters defining various aspects of the specific configuration of the machine 10 and its operation. Very briefly, an operator will input into the computer 24, by means of a terminal 26, information identifying the cable assemblies to be made, the quantity of each that form a kit and the quantity of kits to be made. The computer then can manipulate the connector feeding apparatus 12 to select and deliver the desired type and quantity of connectors in the correct order for termination to the leading and trailing ends of the cable assemblies comprising each kit.
The feeding apparatus 12 is more clearly shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 423,479 filed Oct. 18, 1989 which is incorporated herein by reference and is assigned to the present assignee. This feeding apparatus is arranged to feed a plurality of connectors, each of which may be different but having a common center to center terminal spacing, in end to end abutting relationship along a track to the terminating station 14. The spacing of the terminals of each individual connector is held to relatively close tolerances thereby permitting the use of mass termination tooling. However, when abutting several connectors end to end, if the tolerance allowances of the connector housings all go one way or the other, it will be impossible to align pre-spaced mass termination tooling with all of the terminals without repositioning the individual connectors.
The locating apparatus of the present invention addresses this problem by providing a novel way of locating and accurately positioning the individual connectors in alignment with the termination tooling.